


Then and Now 


The Story of Forty Years 


CJ^ 


1870-1910 
























Then and Now. 


The Story of Forty Years. 


Written for the Biennial Assembly, held in the First Presbyterian 
Church, Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, April 27th, 1910. 


N 1870, Presbyterians were more averse to 
innovations than now, and it must have been 
somewhat in the nature of a shock when the 
Board of Foreign Missions heard that some 
women in Philadelphia wanted to organize themselves 
into a Missionary Society to help—save the mark!— 
to help that Board with its work among women and 
children. 

No time was lost by the Board in sending one of 
its Secretaries, Dr. Irving, from New York, to talk 
it over with a meeting of pastors and ladies convened 
for the purpose, and the next month, just as the first 
article of a tentative constitution was read, Dr. J. C. 
Lowrie, of the Board, was announced, and addressed 
the meeting. The minutes record that he questioned 
the propriety of an independent organization, and 
thought the work could be more easily, cheaply and 
better done through the agencies now employed by 

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the Chtirch; but inasmuch as he closed by saying he 
thought it safe to leave the matter in the hands of the 
ladies, the constitution was taken up just where it had 
been left at his appearing. One after another the 
articles were voted upon, and later they were sub¬ 
mitted to the Executive Committee of the Board of 
Foreign Missions for approval. 

Thus the precious scheme was launched, the Board 
looking on with alarm, yet with an open mind, the 
pastors with few exceptions so suspicious that one 
of them insisted on being present at a meeting in his 
church, “Because,” he said, “no one knows what 
these women would pray for if left alone!” and the 
very sextons asking excitedly, “Is this one of those 
Woman’s Rights affairs?”—for just then, as now, the 
air was charged with cries for equal suffrage for 
women. 

The Presbyterian Church no longer fears innova¬ 
tions—it courts them. Women’s Foreign Missionary 
Societies are even thought by some to be old-fash¬ 
ioned; while the newest thing out is Men’s Missionary 
Meetings—The Laymen’s Movement. If this goes 
on, we can soon follow Paul’s advice in missionary 
affairs as well as in other matters: “If women will 
learn anything let them ask their husbands at home.” 

If you expect to hear that the beginnings of our 
dear Society were small and the progress slow, you 
will be disappointed, for it seemed to spring full-sized 
like Minerva from the head of Jupiter. Our first 

2 


missionaries, Miss Craig and Miss Dickey (afterward 
Mrs. Tracy), were in India, and in six months after 
our organization we had under our care more than 
half the women missionaries connected with the Board 
of Foreign Missions. Of these. Miss Noyes and Mrs. 
Nevius still work in China; Mrs. Wilder in India, and 
Miss Dascomb in Brazil. 

The need of a Field Secretary was realized almost 
at once, and temporary ones were secured. For 
twelve years (1873-1885) we were so fortunate as to 
have Miss Coring, a former missionary in Syria, who 
is now Mrs. William M. Taylor, of Bartow, Georgia. 
A recent letter from her describes her extraordinary 
perils and pleasures as she travelled about organizing 
718 Societies. Do we not owe her a debt of gratitude? 

We were in such haste to have an Annual Meeting 
that it was held six months after our organization, 
though a full year after the preliminary meetings. 
Moreover, annual meetings seem not to have been 
enough, for they were preceded by ‘‘Anniversaries,” 
and followed by semi-annual meetings in October. 
Is it because our blood runs more sluggishly now that 
a Biennial Assembly suffices? No, but because our 
many splendidly organized Presyterial Societies hold 
annual meetings well fitted to uplift and educate with¬ 
out the yearly presence of the Parent Society, and 
thus much money and labor are saved. 

At that first Annual Meeting, April 21, 1871, sixty- 
t\\}0 Auxiliaries and Bands had sprung into existence, 

3 


supporting fifteen missionaries (besides native teachers 
and schools), while more than $5,000 had come into 
the treasury. To-day we report 4,211 Societies, old 
and young, supporting 231 missionaries, and contrib¬ 
uting $181,353; while the total gifts since our organi¬ 
zation amount to $5,405,000. Of all the missionaries 
who have been our representatives, eleven are here 
to rejoice with us at our Fortieth Anniversary, and 
220 are bearing the burden and heat of the day, while 

“For all the saints who from their labors rest, 

Thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blest!” 

If the Board of Foreign Missions had eyed us skep¬ 
tically in those first few months, it is but fair to say 
they soon welcomed us blithely as colleagues and 
somewhat rapidly unloaded upon us new enterprises, 
which, it seems from the minutes, we invariably 
accepted. (I quote from Mrs. S. C. Perkins.) School 
buildings, homes for missionaries, hospitals, type for 
the Bible in Laos, the purchase of Woodstock in 
India, a boat for missionary use, medical instruments, 
famine funds, and, in one instance, the actual founding 
of a station—all these objects, and many more, were 
proposed, accepted and accomplished during the first 
ten or fifteen years of our history. Moreover, having 
been good, loyal children, and having laid out our 
work on strictly Presbyterian lines, we had each year 
cordial endorsement by the General Assembly, and in 
every report of the Standing Committee on Foreign 

4 


Missions our labors were distinctly acknowledged and 
approved. 

Thus events followed fast, yet there were a few 
things which came so slowly as to be unaccountable 
did we not remember how our founders shrunk from 
publicity. There was no printed report the first year, 
save two pages in Woman’s Work for Woman, and 
when the second year one of eighty pages was 
printed, the names of the “Managers” (now called 
Directors) were not included in the first edition. Was 
it because of their dislike to see or to have husbands 
and fathers see their names in print? Again, they 
record only silent prayer in the minutes of the first 
meetings—unless indeed a man was brought in to 
lead in prayer—and in the public meetings no woman 
seems to have made an address until in April, 1872, 
Miss Nassau, of Africa, and Mrs. House, of Siam, 
broke the silence. 

But if the prayers were not at first audible, they 
were none the less incessant, and only by reason of 
this has the Society thriven. As early as 1871, the 
Managers recommended that the hour between five 
and six on Sunday evening be devoted to prayer for 
missionaries and for our efforts to aid them. Since 
1874, the third Tuesday morning of the month has 
seen us assembled for the same purpose. Prayers 
and letters, letters and prayers!—we have been nour¬ 
ished on them and have tried to help the Master feed 
the five thousand, the many times five thousand of our 
constituents, with the same angel’s food. 

5 


speaking of letters, it is pleasant to catch glimpses 
in the minutes of the excitement caused by receiving 
the first missionary letter in April, 1871. It was from 
Miss Hattie Noyes, of Canton, unfolding her plans 
for a Girls’ School and asking that we support it. 
This request was granted, and to this day the head of 
True Light Seminary is Miss Noyes. In 1909, as 
many as 20,819 copies of missionary letters went out 
from our office, and a special secretary is needed to 
oversee their distribution. 

Let me say, in passing, that it was on that same 
day when the first missionary letter was received that 
the name of Mrs. Turner was proposed as Manager— 
a day fraught with blessing for many! 

This brings us to our Presidents. There have been 
but three—alas! that the one who planned for this 
meeting is no longer with us! Mrs. W. E. Schenck, 
a forceful and discerning woman, was elected at the 
first organized meeting, and continued in office twenty 
years. Mrs. C. P. Turner, her successor, retired after 
fourteen years from the Presidency, but, to our joy. 
not from anything else. Shoulder to shoulder has she 
worked with us, and we feel her influence in every 
undertaking. Mrs. Charles N. Thorpe, for twenty 
years a foreign secretary, was elected President in 
1904, and her death one month ago has left our hearts 
too freshly wounded for speech. 

Our officers for the most part have served us long 
as well as faithfully. Mrs. Fishburn was Treasurer 


from 1875 to 1902, a term of twenty-seven years. 
Mrs. S. C. Perkins, one of our founders, held many 
offices in the thirty years before her death. Her 
“Story of Twenty-five years” is the history of our first 
quarter-century, and has been, as you may believe, of 
great help in preparing this paper. Mrs. R. H. Allen, 
Vice-President, was a great power, and is held in lov¬ 
ing memory. Mrs. D. R. Posey, from her election in 
1874 to her retirement in 1905, filled many places of 
responsibility, and to her and Mrs. Fishburn as Hon¬ 
orary Officers we often turn for information and 
advice. Mrs. A. L. Massey, elected in 1873, worked 
continuously till this year, when she was bidden to 
her reward. The only surviving charter member of 
the Board is Mrs. Z. M. Humphrey, who still holds us 
dear, though a change of residence early severed her 
connection as an officer. Do we not see her influence 
and name in the Humphrey Band of this church,* 
which in 1906 celebrated its twenty-fifth birthday 
(never having omitted a regular meeting), and which 
can boast that four missionaries have gone out from 
its ranks! 

Before we leave the subject of our officers, I appeal 
to those of you who have held office even as long as 
seven years in this Board—does it not seem as seven 
days for the love you bear toward it? 

In order to hold property and to strengthen the 
organization, a charter was obtained in 1883, but long 

* First Church, Walnut Hills, Cincinnati. 

7 



before that, through the generosity of the Board of 
Publication, we “read our title clear” to the rooms in 
which we had set up housekeeping. Before we were 
two years old the Board of Publication gave us rooms 
rent-free, first at 1334 Chestnut Street, where Rooms 
31 and 25 meant much to us and our missionaries, and 
since 1898 at the Witherspoon Building, 1319 Walnut 
Street, where in Rooms 501, 502 and 503, we delight 
to welcome those of you who call. Here any day you 
are likely to meet your officers, but you are certain to 
do so on the first and third Tuesdays of the month 
at the meeting of the Directors and at the prayer 
meeting—the latter, as I reminded you, an institution 
of thirty-six years’ standing. Every Tuesday sees the 
members of the Executive Committee at the Wither¬ 
spoon Building—and a vision of a green table comes 
to me whose magic circle leaves no one who touches 
it the same! 

Do not imagine that your secretaries sit at 501 
Witherspoon Building and draw salaries. All officers 
except the Treasurer are unsalaried, and in their 
homes, to which your letters are forwarded, they have 
just such cares as have the rest of you. 

In 1872, the first Presbyterial Society was organ¬ 
ized, and (to quote again from Mrs. S. C. Perkins) 
“Many a good Presbyterian woman hardly knew what 
a Presbytery was until there arose a talk about this 
new kind of a society.” Since then we have added, 
subtracted, multiplied and divided Presbyterial Socie- 

8 


ties, until we now stand at seventy-seven. In 1885, 
and again in 1908, for good and sufficient reasons, 
three Presbyterial Societies were transferred to the 
New York Women’s Board. In 1886, the North 
Pacific, and in 1889 the Occidental Branches were 
organized into separate Boards, with whom, together 
with the three other Women’s Boards, we have vital 
connection by means of a Central Committee. In 
1908, the union of the Cumberland Church with our 
own added new Presbyterial Societies, and brought 
the number up to the seventy-seven. 

There have also been subtraction and addition ip 
our foreign field—missions among the North Ameri¬ 
can Indians were transferred to the Home Board in 
1873 (j^st softer we had sent them a gift of a barrel of 
candy, too!), and the Spanish War in 1898 laid the 
Philippines on our doorstep. At present we support 
work in twelve countries—India, China, Japan, Persia, 
West iVfrica, Siam and Laos, Syria, South America, 
Mexico, Korea, Philippines, and among the Chinese 
and Japanese in California. 

Watch how swiftly our periodicals evolved. Six 
months after our organization, Woman^s Work for 
Woman, a quarterly, was launched, the Board of the 
Northwest joining with us in its publication. The 
next year it changed to a bi-monthly, and in 1875 to 
a monthly, with a subscription list of 10,000. Ten 
years later it became the organ of all the Women’s 
Boards, and was moved to New York. This year its 

9 


gifted Miss Parsons celebrates the twenty-fifth year 
of her editorship by attending the World’s Conference 
on Missions at Edinburgh. 

As to leaflets, the first one was published in 1872, 
and the Second Annual Report gives a list of nine 
publications. The output of leaflets now averages 
more than 100,000 yearly, filling a twenty-two paged 
catalogue. 

The Young People’s Work of our Board is almost 
as old as the Board itself. It must have begun before 
1872, for the minutes that year record that one of the 
meetings was pleasantly interrupted by four little girls, 
who bore a box filled with dolls and other articles of 
their handiwork, made for the children of India. Per¬ 
haps it was the children’s department mWoman’s Work 
which inspired them, but at all events, they have been 
harbingers of a host of others who from Band, Circle, 
Christian Endeavor Society and Guild, have rallied to 
our aid. When Children’s Work for Children (now 
Over Sea and Land) was started in 1875, it was housed 
in our offices, and was the only children’s missionary 
magazine in the United States. 

Later, a secretary was appointed to look after 
Young People’s Work, and at present there are three 
such to oversee the 3,298 organizations which range 
from Little Light Bearers (babies) up through Bands 
and Christian Endeavor Societies to the studious 
Westminster Guilds and the Study Classes. 

It was in tJiis very city of Cincinnati that we cele- 

10 


brated our Tenth Anniversary, the Seventh Presby¬ 
terian Church giving us our birthday party. The 
decennial offering amounted to $29,048.00. Philadel¬ 
phia gathered the Society together for its Silver Anni¬ 
versary in 1895, and we set up as our twenty-fifth 
milestone the Philadelphia Hospital for Women in 
Ambala, India. 

I wish it were the province of this paper to recount 
those more interesting things, the doings on the for¬ 
eign field. How implicated we are in all that touches 
our missionaries! Does each of them from time to 
time wrestle with plague, famine, earthquake, financial 
depression, political prejudice, war, massacre? We 
more! For have we not war every year, with its 
dread following of famine and pestilence? Always 
somezvhere in our twelve countries is there disaster! 
Happily the missionaries’ joys also are ours, and what 
should we do without them! Each year we give 
thanks for a revival somewhere. Letters fly back and 
forth shuttle-fashion across the seas: 

“Dr. Mary Eddy wins from the Sultan the first 
license for a woman to practice r^edicine in the 
Turkish Empire.” 

“Six hundred and seventy-eight Brownies 
(famine orphans) baptized in one year in Kodoli, 

India.” 

“The Emperor of China is studying English.” 

“The walls of the West Africa churches must 
be removed to seat the members.” 

“A fiftieth, twenty-fifth and tenth anniversary 
celebrated in one year in Japan, Korea and the 
Philippines.” 


II 


Then watch that Korea miracle! So discouraging 
were matters in 1889 that nine lines in the annual 
report sufficed to tell them. In 1896 it had shrunk to 
seven lines, and they mostly about the king. Two 
years later the report expands to forty-six lines, while 
to-day just listen to that ^‘nation on the run to God.” 

God “has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call 
rctrccit * 

He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat: 
Oh! be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet 1 
Our God is marching on.” 

Rachel Lowrie. 


Price^ S cents. 



























THE WOMAN’S FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF 
THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 

501 Witherspoon Building, Philadelphia 






